Do you want help from humans or AI bots? Because the UK civil service is changing – and not for the better | The civil servant

The Guardian Politics Wednesday 30 September 2026, 11:00 UTC By The civil servant 1 min read

Key Points

Rapidly expanding AI use within the government is numbing departments to its profound threats. And try arguing with a faceless digital bureaucratAnother day, another apocalyptic warning about the likelihood that rampantly uncontrollable artificial intelligence will solve all of our problems, including the problem of being alive. Hot on the heels of disgruntled Anthropic researchers announcing the end of civilisation by 2030, we’ve now had the portentously named Hugging Face incident, as well...

Rapidly expanding AI use within the government is numbing departments to its profound threats. And try arguing with a faceless digital bureaucrat

Another day, another apocalyptic warning about the likelihood that rampantly uncontrollable artificial intelligence will solve all of our problems, including the problem of being alive.

Hot on the heels of disgruntled Anthropic researchers announcing the end of civilisation by 2030, we’ve now had the portentously named Hugging Face incident, as well as the Australian government’s grim discovery of a rogue AI’s attack on its Medicare website. Swarms of experts are now falling over each other to warn us that much, much worse is on the way.

The author works for the UK civil service

UK (LOCATION) AI (ORG) Australian (ORG) Medicare (ORG)

Originally published by The Guardian Politics Read original →

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Do you want help from humans or AI bots? Because the UK civil service is changing – and not for the better | The civil servant

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